A Guide to Using Mass Texting Service for Higher Education
A recent study showed that 77% of students prefer receiving relevant information from colleges and universities on their phones via texts. While the stats may surprise you, they are almost fair. Almost 95% of undergraduates and postgraduates have mobile phones. Why not make use of these stats and use a mass texting service to your advantage?
The reason for preferring texts over anything else is simple. Emails are cumbersome! There is little to no moderation when it comes to email marketing. Hence, most of us receive tens and hundreds of emails every day that bury the important ones. Mass texting has serious monitoring. The TCPA uses the term ‘prior express consent’ as a requirement from people you want to send messages to. Even if you have a number and you know the person will not mind receiving messages from you, you still need their consent. We have an article that deals with this subject in detail. Click the image below to read it.
If you wish to incorporate texting in your university or college’s operations, then we have got you covered. Here is how you can enjoy the perks of mass texting to make communication easier with your students.
Mass texting service use cases for higher education
The most important part of a university or college system is communication with the students. Over the years, universities have tried almost all methods to make it as efficient as possible. However, the closest that they came was with emails.
Universities and colleges that went a step ahead and began using mass texting have never looked back. It may take a while for you to set it up. However, a mass texting service like ExpertTexting makes it easy to do so as well. Before we dive into that, let us discuss the use cases.
Admissions
One of the best ways for colleges and universities to use mass texting for aiding communication for admissions and procedures. Here is the tricky part now! You need to have numbers that allow you to send messages to them. You cannot buy a database of numbers or grab them from another school to send texts.
To gather numbers there are very simple ways. The first is during college and university fairs. These fairs are held several times throughout the years. They help make a connection with the relevant representatives and help you select your major. You can simply put up your QR code or keyword at your stall. Invite interested students to signup to your list to communicate with you.
Don’t stop at fairs only! Put these flyers up throughout your campus. This will allow students to join in as well as people who are visiting to join if they are interested. You can also add your number to your prospectus and brochures to invite students to join in.
Another great way is to add a signup widget on your website to allow people to join and communicate with you directly. Almost all universities and colleges have their website for information. Your widget will allow interested candidates to sign up for your messaging list and communicate with you. Watch the video below to know how you place a signup widget with ExpertTexting.
Just remember that you have to clarify why you are inviting them to join your list.
Once you have all the numbers you can schedule tours, connect students with officers, remind them about application deadlines, and even answer their general queries.
Campus alerts
Communication does not always have to be emergencies! However, there is also a chance that you need emergent communication. In either case, mass texting works the best! Texting is extremely fast and gives out the messages on time. ExpertTexting also sends out delivery reports.
You can send emergency texts, weather notifications, unscheduled closures, event information, or any other piece of information you want to communicate.
To ensure that all students are on your list, add a section in your admission forms and encourage students to subscribe to receive important information.
Alumni community
One of the most important parts of your university or even college is the alumni. The alumni network helps build your school’s image, provides mentoring, internship opportunities, and general aid and guidance to students.
However, to get all the benefits, you need to build a strong community. Even if you have a strong alumni network, you need a way to communicate with them. Mass texting allows you to keep your alumni network connected and in the loop for all the updates. Of course, they always have the option to opt out whenever they want.
The best part about using ExpertTexting as your mass texting service provider is that it makes it manageable. You can make unlimited different groups to segment sending out campaigns for communication. Moreover, if you take an agency account, you can add different sub-admins to manage campaigns of the relevant departments.
Fee reminders
Apart from everything else, universities can use mass texting for fee reminders. Simply send a message to all the students and remind them of due dates.
Moreover, you can also make a separate group for the defaulters and send them a message to communicate with them.
Staff communication
Another important part of communication you have to deal with is staff communication. There are plenty of things that the professors and teachers need to stay in the loop with administration for several different things.
Mass texting allows you to keep in touch with your staff as well with a click of a button.
How you can use ExpertTexting for higher education
One of the best things about ExpertTexting is that it brings a lot more convenience than other service providers. Take for instance the pricing plan. Instead of offering you annual and monthly plans that have limitations, and expire, we offer you a prepaid service. This means that your credits are used up as per every message you send. Moreover, your credits never expire.
Here is how you can use ExpertTexting for mass texting for the higher education system.
- Advertise your keyword
Of course, the first step is to advertise your keyword. There are plenty of ways of doing it. Post it on flyers around the campus, in college fairs, on prospectuses, and everywhere you can think of advertising it. - Segment groups
Several different parts of universities require mass texting and communication. Hence, you need a service that makes it easier for you instead of making it more confusing. ExpertTexting allows you to make several groups. You can make groups for current students, students in certain departments, alumni, staff, and as many as you can think or you need. You can one contact in multiple groups as well. Moreover, ExpertTexting ensures that you do not have duplicate numbers in any group. With every contact, you can add custom fields as well to send personalized mass texts. - Send messages
Now that you have everything in order, there is only one thing left to do! Create your campaign and send out the message. You can also respond to the messages you receive with the one-on-one conversation style inbox. Watch the video below to learn in detail how you can send out a campaign with ExpertTexting.
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